3G iPhone In the Works

[MacRumors]

Though obvious, several sites are reporting on comments by Steve Jobs that a 3G iPhone is coming from Apple. PocketLint specifically claims that Jobs said "You can expect a 3G iPhone later next year", however, Engadget's reporting was a bit less definitive:

Our phone has a talk time of 8 hours and that's really important when you want to use your phone for internet and music. 3G needs to get back up to 5+ hours, something we think well see later next year.

Meanwhile, The Street claims that a 3G iPhone will be available sometime in the 1st quarter of 2008... but their historical accuracy has been quite poor.

Regardless, the fact that Apple is working on a 3G iPhone is not particularly newsworthy. Steve Jobs stated during the iPhone's Macworld San Francisco 2007 keynote that they are planning on making "3g phones and all sorts of other amazing things in the future" (video clip .mov 1.7mb)

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[DMann]

Let's build a wide spread, reliable 3G network first.....

[redAPPLE]

something like, build it and they will come...

[Nermal]

Originally Posted by DMann

Let's build a wide spread, reliable 3G network first.....

Done. Now let's release an iPhone in this country

[ma2ha3]

3G is for sure. apple want the japanese market. it will happen. be patience.
most probably a new iphone 3g with better battery life. fatter.

[A Pittarelli]

perhps the canadian market as well

[andiwm2003]

Originally Posted by DMann

Let's build a wide spread, reliable 3G network first.....

aeh..3G has already full coverage. what else is there to build

[CHROMEDOME]

Originally Posted by andiwm2003

aeh..3G has already full coverage. what else is there to build

Build the towers so people can access the 3G...what coverage are you talking about?

The U.S. has horrible 3G coverage, Sprint and Verizon's EV-DO network is more accessible but not as fast as ATTs 3.6 stuff. T-Mobile doesn't even have a 3G network yet and other countries are workin on 4G...

[iliketomac]

Originally Posted by andiwm2003

aeh..3G has already full coverage. what else is there to build

No, 3G is not prevalent everywhere - not even in the US...yet. It'll get there though... It is the current gold standard after all!

[aswitcher]

I am pretty sure now I will get the touch and wait for the 3G iPhone due out a good year or so away...

[iWizzard]

Originally Posted by iliketomac

No, 3G is not prevalent everywhere - not even in the US...yet. It'll get there though... It is the current gold standard after all!

lol, US is the most backwards country in the western world. Take a look outside US. Europe and eastern asia has had 3G for about 5 years, some parts of asia is testing with 4G.

3G phone migth not be so important in the US but many people will not accept a internet speed reduction by 90% if they buy a new smartphone.

[Voidness]

[geektalk]
Technically, the current iPhone is 3G, because EDGE is considered to be a 3G network technology.

Also, the 3G technology found in many current phones isn't that much faster than EDGE. Those phones are limited to 384Kbps. However, more recent 3G phones employ a 3G technology called HSDPA. That can go up to and beyond 14.4 Mbps, but current network implementations are 1.8Mbps and 3.6Mbps.
[/geektalk]

So yes, I'm going to hold out for the next iPhone with REAL 3G and hopefully GPS

[andiwm2003]

Originally Posted by iliketomac

No, 3G is not prevalent everywhere - not even in the US...yet. It'll get there though... It is the current gold standard after all!

lol, the wolrd is larger than the US.

3g is already old. my 3g phone was free with my contract and is a 3 or 4 year old model.

strange thing is that 3G is everywhere but no cell phone maker could really make use of it. and the only company coming up with a phone that would use 3G to it's fullest comes from the only backwards country without 3G. and then of course they aren't using 3G. oh the irony........

[LoganT]

It really doesn't matter if 3G isn't everywhere in America. Just because it's not available to you, doesn't mean it's not available to other people. I'm sure ATT would update their network in time for the launch of the 3G iPhone (remember, like how they did with EDGE). Oh and incase you guys forgot, 3G is backwards compatible with EDGE. So if you aren't in a 3G area in down converts to EDGE.

[raggedjimmi]

3G is pretty well implimented here. A friend back in college (going back a while now) had a 3G phone and had a very good signal, even though we were far from any city.

No iPhone for me till they get 3G. I'm not paying that kind of money for something lacking a feature present in phones half the price.

[twoodcc]

I think by the time we see 3g on an iPhone, 3g will be worth using

[hob]

I'm reminded of that story Scott Adams (Dilbert creator) tells in one of his books about a computer company that pre-announced a computer, took pre-orders and just as it was about to be released, pre-announced the next one - causing many of their customers to cancel their orders and pre-order the new one.

Everyone knows the 3G iPhone is coming, and in European/Asian markets (pretty much everywhere but the US) it really is important. No-one wants to be locked into an expensive contract for EDGE connectivity...

I wonder how bad their sales are being cannibalised because they didn't wait till they could implement 3G properly...

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by A Pittarelli

perhps the canadian market as well

Canadians still count? I'm totally kidding. I'm quite fond of the Canadians....quite fond.

The 3G network sucks imho but it can be better if they spend the cash to build it. I hope that happens but then again I don't really see me buying an iPhone anytime soon either.

[iJawn108]

Originally Posted by A Pittarelli

perhps the canadian market as well

with who though? telus? rogers? bell? fido?
I'm sure you recall rogers boasting about how they had the iPhone and now nothing. lol

[Lepton]

Apple will release a 3G phone worldwide on June 24th.

Steve is right, current 3G chips are hogs. And the iPhone will be using them heavily, what with it always searching out new connections, always checking EMail, getting visual voice mail and so on, in addition to whatever you are doing. These phones are iPods. You can't have old-chip 3G phones sucking A/V play time out of the iPod part of the device. More than traditional phones, the iPhone needs good battery life.

Much more efficient chips are just about here and they will make such a huge difference that Apple is biting the bullet until they can get them into their production lines. It wouldn't make sense to bring out old-chip 3G phones now when new-chip 3G phones can be here in six months.

That said, I'm dying for a 3G phone, there's smoke coming out of my ears, here on Long Island ATT rolled out 3G some time ago and it's just sitting there unused by iPhones.

[Virgil-TB2]

Originally Posted by Nermal

Done. Now let's release an iPhone in this country

Being as I am also in a country that doesn't have the iPhone (and likely won't have it for a long time), I have a question about the 3G iPhone that I have never seen discussed or answered anywhere. Perhaps it's a real stupid question and that's why no one talks about it, but here goes anyway...

If the 3G phone comes out, is that a different iPhone from the original iPhone? What I mean is, does the contract with AT&T for an EDGE phone mean that they also get the exclusive deal on "iPhone 2.0" with 3G? Or is that a different product altogether?

What I am getting at here is whether or not Apple could release a 3G iPhone ... (anywhere really, but specifically in the US for example), and sell it to AT&T's rivals either in Europe or the US. In Europe, you are already not allowed to lock customers in to a particular provider, so likely in a short while you will sell iPhones on almost any network that will support them, but will the US really have to wait two years to not use AT&T? Or will the 3G iPhone arrive next year on a different provider opening up the whole field?

I live in Canada, and Rogers will never allow the iPhone on Apple's terms so the only real hope that I can see is that a 3G iPhone is available on all the little carriers next year. Is this even possible?

[Orng]

Originally Posted by Virgil-TB2

I live in Canada, and Rogers will never allow the iPhone on Apple's terms so the only real hope that I can see is that a 3G iPhone is available on all the little carriers next year. Is this even possible?

That would be really nice... My current Rogers contract expires in spring 2008. If by some miracle there is a 3G phone, a Canadian launch, and the option to use a different carrier, all they have to do is announce it before May and I'll be first in line. Cause frankly, I'm sick of giving Rogers money. Otherwise I might get some other doohickey phone, maybe one with a camera. Neat!

[ortuno2k]

I'm waiting for a 3G iPhone to get one.
I've really got no rush.

[monkeydust]

i live in the uk
and my current mobile ( a sony w850i) is 3g. 3g is alot bigger over here then it is over in the us
its on most basic phones and with a fully integrated web browser i would like to atleast have a half decent browsing speed. which i dont see on edge.

dont think ill buy a 2g iPhone probally wait for the 3g i still have a contract with my current carrier until march 2008 anyways.

[studiomusic]

Originally Posted by raggedjimmi

No iPhone for me till they get 3G. I'm not paying that kind of money for something lacking a feature present in phones half the price.

Yep, why buy a Macbook Pro when you can buy a Dell for less than half the price... it even comes with Vista standard! Something a Macbook Pro lacks...

If you are going to wait for a 3g iphone... might as well wait for the 4g version.
It never ends.